


Dark Happenings

by leggyfae



Series: A Thousand and One Lifetimes [3]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Alternate Universe - Magic, Fae & Fairies, Fae Magic, First Meetings, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Minor Character Death, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, Non-Graphic Violence, POV Marco Bott
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 14:46:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16042610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leggyfae/pseuds/leggyfae
Summary: For JeanMarco Month 2018: Fantasy/AdventureJean was a child when Marco first met him, small and terrified. Magic had a way of changing people, and Jean was no exception.





	Dark Happenings

The Forest was unforgiving. A step above Hell if you didn’t understand the way it worked. Luckily, Marco had lived in the Forest his whole life. He'd grown up learning the sounds of the trees and the twists of the ever-changing roots, had learned to dodge danger while dancing on the death’s doorstep with every step, every breath, that he took. Marco had learned the ins and outs of the Forest until he became just as dangerous as the place he called home.

 

It wasn’t every day that a mortal stepped into the Forest. Most were usually too terrified of the unknown to even glance through the trees. The last time Marco had seen a human willingly step into the Forest was almost a hundred years ago when Eren became the youngest creature to join them.

 

Marco kept his distance as he followed after the human. He was young; Marco wasn't the best with human ages, but he figured the human was no more than six. Just a boy, and he was already this far into the Forest.

 

Marco would have been impressed with the child's bravery if it wasn't for the sniffles he heard over the whispers of the trees. He slipped through the branches, blending in with the shadows of the Forest, as he made his way closer to the crying boy.

 

If he was lost, Marco wasn't going to be cruel. He knew firsthand the terrors of being a child alone in the Forest.

 

“Are you lost, little one?” He asked, sitting down on a nearby stump so he didn't scare the boy.

 

The human jerked around to face him, stumbling over his feet in his panic and falling to the ground. He scrubbed furiously at his eyes, wiping away the tears that clung to his lashes. 

 

“N-No! I saw something and followed it here, but all the trees look the same, so I don't know how to get back to my mama.”

 

Marco chuckled, “That's what lost means, little one.”

 

“Oh.” The boy pulled his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs. “I wanna go back home. It's dark here and the trees are looking at me. I don't like it.”

 

Marco stood, striding over to kneel in front of the boy. “What's your name, child?”

 

The boy shook his head, shaggy blond hair whipping around. “Mama says I'm not supposed to talk to strangers.”

 

“I see. Then it is only fair if I give you my name.” Marco knew his choice of words would come back to haunt him, but a child this young would forget his name in a few months. He could risk it. “I am Marco.”

 

The air shifted around them, a gust of wind blowing up a cloud of dust around them. The boy blinked up at him. “Marco?” He nodded. “You can call me Jean.”

 

The wind settled when the boy gave Marco his name, returning the gesture. They belonged to each other now. Bound by the strange rules of the Fae. An eye for an eye, so to speak. Names had power within the Forest, and now that Jean had his, Marco could be called upon whenever the boy was inside the woods. Marco could call upon the boy too, but times had changed and no one wanted a weak, mortal child around anymore.

 

Jean let go of his legs and looked up at Marco, watery golden eyes searching for something in Marco’s dark brown gaze. The boy sniffed, rubbing his runny nose clean with the sleeve of his tunic. “Marco, can you help me get home?”

 

Marco felt a tug in his gut and he nodded, standing. It was a simple request. There was no harm in taking the boy home, so long as he wasn’t spotted by another mortal. He offered his hand to Jean, picking the boy up as soon as he was standing. Jean clung to him, grubby fingers twisting into the fabric of his robes.

 

“Close your eyes tight and hold your breath, alright?” Jean nodded, pressing his face into Marco’s shoulder.

 

Marco shifted his hold on Jean and took a step forward, the Forest twisting around him as he breathed magic into the air. In a few short steps Marco had made his way from the center of the Forest to the edge of it, able to see a small village through the trees.

 

Marco heard cries in the distance, a woman shouting Jean’s name in desperation, and he set Jean down, kneeling in front of him again. “Follow the light and don't turn around unless you want to get lost again. The Forest likes to toy with people, just as much as the creatures who live here. So if you turn around, you’ll end up just as lost as you were before. Only I won’t be able to help you.”

 

“Okay.” Jean rocked on his feet for a moment before he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Marco’s shoulders again, hugging him. “Thank you for taking me home.”

 

Marco smiled, returning Jean’s hug before he pulled away and turned the boy around. “You’re welcome. Now, go home. I think I hear your mother calling for you.”

 

Marco watched Jean until he was safe in his mother’s arms, then he turned and returned to the dark embrace of the Forest. 

 

The boy would forget about him in time. He’d become a distant memory. A foggy figure in a dream. 

 

Marco walked away thinking that he’d never see the boy again.

 

~

 

Time passed. How much, Marco wasn’t sure. Thousands of years of living had blurred his memories together. But it had been a long time since Marco had last thought about the boy he gave his name to. A long time since he’d brought little Jean back home.

 

Jean wasn’t little now.

 

He had grown; his chubby features became lean and angular, high cheekbones taking place where there once was a childish, rounded face. He moved like he was still learning how to use his limbs, awkward and gangly, like a newborn deer. Marco figured that he was a teen by now.

 

Jean was sitting just inside the perimeter of the Forest, leaning back against the trunk of a tree, his face bruised and knuckles bloodied. He looked almost as shocked to see Marco as Marco was to see him.

 

Jean shot to his feet and shoved Marco back. “Ten fucking years and  _ this _ is what it takes to get you to show up?” 

 

Marco stared blankly at Jean, blinking in confusion. “What?”

 

“Ten years of begging for help from you again, and only now do you decide to come back?” Jean crossed his arms, glaring at Marco while blood dripped sluggishly from a cut on his cheek. “You  _ gave _ me your name. I’ve been using it. Why only now?”

 

Marco glanced past Jean, towards the village in the distance. “I… I don’t have power outside of the Forest. What are you even doing here, little one? The Forest is dangerous for your kind.”

 

Jean shrugged, turning to look over his shoulder at the village he called home. “I’m hiding.”

 

“Hiding?”

 

Jean nodded. “Yes. I’m not exactly a town favorite. Everyone says that I took a little bit of the Forest with me when I came back. They treat me like a monster. Mama kept me safe when she could, but she can’t really help me much anymore.”

 

“So you came here?”

 

“So I came here.” Jean shrugged. “I feel safer among the trees than I do behind the walls of my house.”

 

Marco pursed his lips, stepping towards the teen. He tilted Jean’s head up and wiped his thumb over the cuts on his cheek, magic stitching the wounds closed. “You’ve come here before, then?” 

 

“Yes, but this is the furthest I’ve ever come before.”

 

“This is where the Forest starts, so it makes sense that you were able to call me from here. But you have to go back. The magic here changes mortals.” Jean looked up at Marco, opening his mouth to argue. “No. It is not safe for you here. Your town calls you a monster, but if you stay here longer you’ll become exactly what the village says you are.”

 

Jean closed his mouth. He looked back at the village and narrowed his eyes, glaring at the people moving around. “Then let me become what they think I am.” Jean turned back to Marco, back to the Forest, his golden eyes flashing underneath the shifting sunlight. “It’s better than the alternative.”

 

Marco shook his head, ignoring the way the Forest shifted to call to Jean. The mortal was still young. He still had a chance to live a normal life. Marco had sworn after Eren that he wouldn’t let the Forest claim another victim so young. “Go home, Jean. Speak to me again in a year. You know where to come to call me now. If you can change my mind, I’ll let you join me. But you are too young for the Forest now. Go home.”

 

Marco turned and strode back into the depths of the Forest, Jean’s protests echoing through the trees. “I’m seventeen. I’m not that young.”

 

~

 

Jean didn’t wait a year to call Marco back. Now that he knew where he could meet Marco, he was calling the Fae almost every week. Each time Jean begged to join Marco. And each time Marco refused, either sending Jean back home or leaving before Jean could ask again. 

 

Eventually Jean gave up asking.

 

He still called though. Spending time, anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, talking to Marco about his life. Treating Marco like his friend. Asking for help, asking about Marco’s life, talking about anything and everything.

 

Jean treated him like a friend. And Marco returned the favor. Holding Jean when he cried, healing cuts and bruises, letting the human rant about his abusive father.

 

A year passed and Jean did not ask to join Marco. He was eighteen, barely an adult, but he’d learned in his time with Marco. He still had things to live for back home. Still had to spend time with his mother while she was still alive. Even if she was lying sick in bed and getting worse with every passing day.

 

~

 

Jean was twenty when his mother passed away, sobbing in Marco’s arms as his mother’s funeral pyre burned in the distance.

 

He did not have to ask Marco then. Marco knew. It was time for Jean to join him. The Forest had been slowly twisting Jean in the time of their visits. Dark magic staining his heart, bleeding into his lungs, surging through Jean’s fingertips.

 

Jean looked up at Marco, his golden eyes glowing with the hints of magic within him, and Marco took Jean’s hand.

 

“Are you ready?” Jean nodded and Marco guided him into the deepest recesses of the Forest, where the magic was thickest.

 

Each step they took twisted Jean further. A tail protruding from his back, ears elongating to points, small horns sprouting from his forehead. The Forest changed its children in different ways, and it had been waiting years to take Jean. 

 

They stopped in the center of the Forest, Marco squeezing Jean’s hand comfortingly. “Welcome home, Jean.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm running super behind for JeanMarco Month, but my plan is to catch up soon!
> 
> I really enjoyed writing this, magic and faeries have always been one of my favorite things, so I hope you enjoyed this darker twist on faeries!
> 
> Comments and kudos are always appreciated!


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